A major advantage of eye glasses containing polarized lenses is the ability to reduce glare from light striking reflecting surfaces. Such glare is particularly acute when reflected from water surfaces, the surface of snow, from shiny car hoods or roadways and generally is polarized in a plane parallel to the surface. Polarized sunglasses reduce glare by having a vertical transmission axis, but blocking the dominantly horizontally polarized reflected light from horizontal surfaces. The reduction in glare by polarized lenses can be dramatic but is not fully appreciated by many members of the public who purchase sunglasses and who often are more concerned with the tint and general reduction of light provided by sunglasses rather than the selective reduction of polarized light. At the retail store where such glasses are sold, polarized lenses are often not adequately described, either due to a lack of trained personnel or because of an inability to adequately communicate the significant advantages of Polarized lenses.
A previous attempt to address this problem has been made by the provision of a glare producing view box wherein the customer is asked to look at a graphic, such as a photographic scene, through a clear pane (which can be referred to as a glare pane) of transparent material. Such a device is shown in FIG. 1 in which a housing 10 carries a graphic 12 on its base with a glare pane 14 of transparent material. A translucent panel 16 overlies a pair of elongated fluorescent bulbs, one of which, at 18 is shown, transmit diffused light directly onto the glare pane 14 so that a portion of the light reflects from the glare pane 14 while other portions illuminate the graphic and reflect from the graphic through the glare pane 14 to the eyes of the viewer. The viewer is provided with a lorgnette containing polarized lenses and views the scene with and without using the lorgnette. While such a device provides some glare, is not sufficient to veil the graphic and therefore does not provide a dramatic demonstration of the effectiveness of polarized lenses. The inability of the device to produce veiling glare can be attributed the use of simple diffused light and its application directly to the glare pane. Moreover, the open structure of the housing allows unpolarized light from the diffusion panel to impinge directly on the eyes of the viewer, effectively washing out the image seen through the Polarized lenses, decreasing the perception of dramatic improvement.
A need, therefore, exists for a glare demonstrator that creates veiling glare across a graphic when viewed without polarizing lenses and which enables the scene depicted by the graphic to be seen clearly through polarizing lenses. The device must be sufficiently compact for a retail setting and sufficiently easy to use so that the customer can see the effect of polarizing lenses without the need for trained personnel.